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The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 



THE FIRST 

CHRISTMAS 
STORY 



**LET US GO 
EVEN UNTO 
BETHLEHEM" 



CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE 

Author of '*A Man's Reach/^Etc. 



(OP 



NEW YORK 

Dodge Publishing Company 

220 East 23d^ Street 



Copyright, 1915, by Dodge Publishing 
Company 

[the first cheistmas stoby] 



.Lsrs- 



P^: 



s^ 



FE6 12 1916 

©CI.A4. 18793 

4t* ./ ' 



TO 
MY MOTHER 

WITH EXQUISITE YULETIDE MEMORIES, 

AND WITH TENDEREST 

AFFECTION 



THE FIRST CHRISTMAS 
STORY 

IT was a beautiful custom of the long 
ago among our forefathers at the 
Christmas-tide for the neighbors 
and friends to gather about an old-fash- 
ioned fire place, and while the huge 
Yule log crackled and chattered, some 
one would tell Christmas stories of rare 
and entrancing interest. 

Once upon a time, many long years 
ago, when Augustus Csesar was ruling 
in opulence and majesty in imperial 

Rome, a decree was issued that a cen- 

7 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

sus should be taken in all the Roman 
provinces. At this time Rome was em- 
press of the world; Hannibal's vow 
had not been realized, and Carthage 
was paying tribute to Rome; Horace, 
Livy, Ovid and Strabo were winning 
for this period the Golden Era in lit- 
erature ; and the eyes of the world were 
on the Eternal City with its wilderness 
of architectural magnificence. 

There stood the immortal Pantheon 
with its numberless shrines and graceful 
domes, and yonder was the Appian 
Way with its tombs and its temples; 
and there also was the massive Colos- 
seum with its ascending galleries and 
its cruel gladiatorial shows. The his- 
toric Campagna with its winding aque- 

8 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

ducts and nestling villages unfolded 
like a scroll toward the horizon. Rome 
— city of cities, apparently as everlast- 
ing as the seven eternal hills upon which 
it was set like a glistening jewel of ex- 
quisite beauty. 

In a Syrian village far away on the 
shores of the Mediterranean lived an 
honest carpenter, who, being a lineal 
descendant of David, determined, when 
he heard the royal decree, to go to Beth- 
lehem, the head of his tribe ; and he took 
with him a sweet Jewish maiden, his 
espoused wife. In those sober Oriental 
days the espousal was so sacred and 
binding that it could be broken only by 
a writ of divorcement. 

It was a picturesque journey of sixty 

9 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

or seventy miles and was filled with en- 
trancing and holy interest to the de- 
vout little woman as she sat upon a 
faithful beast, and her admiring and 
protecting lover walked by her side. 
They crossed the Plains of Esdraelon, 
where famous battles had been fought, 
and looked upon the graceful slopes of 
Mt. Tabor where brave Deborah as- 
sembled her victorious army. In their 
journey they rested at Jacob's Well, 
and drank of its cooling waters. They 
tarried at Bethel and recalled the strug- 
gle of their father Jacob, and had in- 
tercourse with holy angels as they as- 
cended and descended upon invisible 
ladders. And there was Gideon, where 
the sun stood still while Joshua finished 

10 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

his victorious battle against the Amo- 
rites. 

Reaching Jerusalem they intention- 
ally avoided the big city, leaving it to the 
left, and went on toward the village of 
Bethlehem only a few miles away. 

Beautiful Bethlehem, even then noted 
as the birth-place of Israel's Poet- 
Warrior-King, and for its picturesque 
hills, and drooping turquoise skies. 

The panoramic splendors and thrill- 
ing historic associations of this eventful 
journey filled the hearts of Joseph and 
Mary with rapturous joy, and, no 
doubt, with tender and tremulous an- 
ticipations. 

When they reached the little city 
they found it overfllowing with Bethle- 

11 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

hemites from all over the land; and 
Mary and Joseph, two royal descend- 
ants of the direct regal lineage of Da- 
vid, could find no accommodations in 
the already over-crowded inn. They 
were too poor to be able to afford ex- 
pensive comforts, and gladly accepted 
the proffered hospitality of a humble 
peasant, whose home was partially a 
sheltering cave in the limestone hills, 
and was freely shared with the faithful 
cattle upon whom the subsistence of the 
family largely depended. 

Here beautiful Mary rested after the 
week's wearisome travel, and she was 
loved and soothed by the sympathetic 
housewife, whose presence made of even 
that peasant's cave a home of rustic and 

12 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

simple beauty and peace. It takes a 
hundred men to make a company, but 
one little woman can make even the 
humblest spot a home of heavenly sweet- 
ness and joy; and here "Mary brought 
forth her first-born son, and wrapped 
him in swaddling clothes and laid him 
in a manger, because there was no room 
for them in the inn." 

''Let us go even unto Bethlehem," 
exclaimed the astonished shepherds on 
that first Christmas morning, ''and see 
the thing which is come to pass, which 
the Lord hath made known unto us." 
From that radiant dawn, when those 
picturesque peasants turned their ex- 
pectant faces to this little city of David, 
until now, multitudes of reverent pil- 
ls 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

grims have come from the ends of the 
earth to breathe a prayer of praise and 
suppHcation at the Holy Shrine of the 
Manger of our Lord, 

Stretching out to the eastward a few 
miles from Bethlehem, among the dim- 
pled hills of Judea, are the green fields 
where the dreamy shepherds patiently 
watched their flocks by night. These 
humble men of devotional spirit, whose 
constant nightly companionship was 
with the shining constellations, were 
honored as the first evangels of the Sa- 
vior's advent. They confidently be- 
lieved the angelic messenger, and made 
haste to come to the Manger of the 
World's Redeemer. And forth they 
went to recite to the astonished multi- 

14 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

tudes the strange revelations of that 
first Christmas morning, until ''all they 
that heard it wondered at those things 
which were told them by the shepherds." 
All worshipers of Jesus Christ long 
to walk in the footsteps of these adoring 
shepherds and come to the honored place 
of Our Master's nativity. We may 
have gone to the banks of the Avon and 
have seen the birthplace of the world's 
greatest poet ; or we may have visited the 
quaint, thatched cottage where Bobbie 
Burns was introduced into his poverty- 
stricken surroundings. We may have 
curiously beheld the spots where the 
world's greatest warriors, and states- 
men, and philosophers were born, but all 
of these are unimportant when com- 

15 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

pared with the exquisite privilege of 
bending with tearful reverence over the 
rude birth-place of Jesus Christ, the 
humble and despised Nazarene, and the 
risen, ruling and universally beloved 
Redeemer of the world. 

The modern visitor to the Holy Land 
will desire first of all to see Jerusalem, 
''the City of the Great King — beautiful 
for situation, the joy of the whole 
earth." He will ecstatically obey the 
cormnand of Israel's Poet-King: ''Walk 
about Zion, and go round about her; 
tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well 
her bulwarks, consider her palaces." 

Just outside the gates he will seek 
for Calvary's rugged brow ; there he will 
weep bitter tears and in some measure 

16 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

share the agony of his suffering Lord; 
and then, rejoicing in the remembrance 
that even the cruel nails could not de- 
tain his Master among the groveling 
things of earth, the traveler will turn to 
his dragoman with the earnest request, 
'^Take me to Bethlehem!" 

Ho! for Bethlehem! The little city 
lies four and one-half miles, a Sabbath- 
day's journey, directly to the south- 
ward. There is a good carriage road, 
but we prefer our saddles, and in remi- 
niscent mood ride leisurely along the 
sacred highway. We remember the 
Three Magi who long ago traversed 
this same path, startling the curious 
multitudes, who looked wonderingly 
upon them, and heard their ominous 

17 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

query: ^' Where is he that is born King 
of the Jews, for we have seen his star in 
the East, and are come to worship 
him?'' Here to the side of the road is 
the Well of the Magi, where the Wise 
Men are said to have drunk and to have 
gotten a fresh glimpse of the Star of 
Bethlehem. 

A little further on is the tomb of sweet 
and beautiful Rachel, whose pure life 
went out when Benjamin was born; and 
yonder is the well for whose crystal 
fountain David longed when he said: 
^'Oh! that one would give me drink of 
the water of the well of Bethlehem, 
which is by the gate." And immediately 
three of David's most valiant warriors 
"broke through the host of the Philis- 

18 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

tines," secured the coveted prize and car- 
ried it to their king. 

Here by the Well of David a charm- 
ing view of the city is obtained. It is 
like all Oriental cities, a ''city set on a 
hill," and sits like a glistening crown 
upon the brow of one of these low Ju- 
dean mountains. The gentle hillsides 
are terraced into gardens and orchards 
of marvelous fertility. The fig and the 
olive are carefully cultivated, and many 
grain fields are prophetic of an abun- 
dant harvest. 

From this position the city looks like 
a mass of angular architecture. The 
roofs of the houses are invariably flat, 
the streets are narrow and winding, and 
sometimes run like tunnels through the 

19 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

homes of the people. No trees or shrubs 
ornament the streets, though the home 
gardens are rich v/ith bloom and deli- 
cate with sweet perfumes. 

Picturesque Bethlehem! Among 
yonder fields Ruth gleaned after the 
reapers; there at a distance the shep- 
herds heard the angelic chorus ; and here 
David, the son of Jesse, watched as a 
patient and trusty custodian over his 
father's flocks. These are sacred and 
historical acres. 

With unsuppressed expectation we 
inquire for the site of the Manger of 
Jesus. We follow our guide through 
the narrow and, at times, crowded 
streets. We pass numberless little ba- 
zaars where are sold mementoes manu- 

20 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

factured from the basaltic stone of the 
Dead Sea and from mother of pearL 
Many pilgrims purchase these articles 
and carry them to the priests to receive 
their blessing. 

But the center of interest to the rev- 
erent worshiper and to the curious trav- 
eler alike is the Church of the Virgin, 
for in the crypt of this quaint, old struc- 
ture is a spot that is pointed out as the 
authenticated birth-place of our Lord. 
This massive structure has been built 
over the peasant's home, and is today 
held by the Latin Church. Many sects 
have sought to secure the possession of 
this sacred site, but the Latin Church 
holds it with great tenacity, and protects 
it by armed soldiery. Through a nar- 

21 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

row portal, when our credentials have 
been examined, we are admitted into 
the Cathedral, which has neither dome 
nor towers, and resembles a fortress, but 
whose massive walls are able to defy the 
sacrilegious intruder. 

We pass up the nave and through 
several small chapels, until we come to 
a staircase cut out of the rock, which 
leads down to a grotto-like chamber 
whose walls and ceiling are of the same 
solid rock. It is manifestly a cave, and 
is in harmony with the custom that still 
prevails among the poor of Palestine, of 
constructing their rude homes partially 
from natural caves, or by excavating 
into the rocky hillsides. 

This little chapel is thirteen and a 

22 



T he FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

half yards long, four yards wide and ten 
feet high. It is brightened by thirty- 
two beautiful lamps that are never ex- 
tinguished. The walls are lined with 
marble of exquisite texture and polish. 
In the concave surface of one end of the 
grotto is a little shrine, radiant with 
burning lamps ; and here, placed in the 
floor, is a star of burnished silver, which 
bears the inscription: ''Hie de Virgine 
Maria Jesus Christus Natus Est." — 
"Here Jesus Christ Was Born of the 
Virgin Mary." The reverent visitor, 
whose heart has felt the touch of his 
Lord's tender love, wiU sink to his knees 
in this solemn, quiet retreat, and pour 
out his soul in sincerest worship and in 
ardent adoration. The tears of mingled 

23 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

joy and grief will rush down his cheeks, 
and he will here renew his covenant 
vows, and promise more faithful alle- 
giance to the Savior who suffered and 
died that he might live. 

"There was no room for them in the 
inn;" and in these passing years there 
has been no room for Jesus in many 
homes and in many hearts. But, oh! at 
this Christmas season let us invite the 
Savior of Bethlehem, now the Ruler of 
the Universe, to come into our hearts 
and transform our lives. This Christ- 
mas-tide will mean temporal happiness 
and eternal joy to us if we shall allow 
our hearts to become a humble manger 
where the sweet spirit of our Lord shall 

24 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

find loving welcome and uninterrupted 
residence. 

My message to you at this time is: 
^'Go not with hat and staff to wander 
beside God's grave and cradle yonder; 
look inward, and behold with awe His 
Bethlehem and Golgotha," 

"No room for them in the inn!'' 
Every one was too much concerned for 
his own comfort to pay any attention to 
these Galilean peasants. It is the same 
old sad and tragic blunder of selfishness. 
There was no effort to make room for 
humble folk who did not have the price 
or the prestige, and as Joseph left the 
inn with his precious charge, the uncon- 
cerned and heartless master of the inn 
did not know that "glory had departed 

25 



The FIRST CH RISTMAS STORY 

from the inn to the stable because sheer 
selfishness had driven it out." How 
many times in the future did greedy- 
avarice recall how nearly his hostelry 
came to being one of the world's most 
famous shrines. Thus does selfishness 
lose the thing it seeks, and long for what 
it might once have easily possessed. It 
is ever a startling truth and belongs to 
the instruction of the Christmas-tide, 
that he who saves his life shall lose it, 
but he who loses his life for Christ and 
humanity's sake shall find it. 

There is indeed great danger that in 
our social and business and even relig- 
ious life, we shall become so absorbed in 
our personal ambitions and indulgences 
that we may "commit this ancient blun- 

26 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

der of the Bethlehem inn, and crowd 
Jesus out.'' 

"He came unto His own and His own 
received Him not." No room for Jesus 
in Nazareth — they sought to hurl Him 
over a precipice. No room in the Jew- 
ish Church, whose empty ceremonies He 
rebuked. No room in the farcical Halls 
of Justice for Christ, but plenty of room 
for the seditious Barabbas. No room in 
all the land; though ''the foxes have 
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, 
yet the Son of Man hath not where to 
lay His head." 

There was just room enough for a 
hole in a rock to plant a cross. Room 
enough in His hands for the biting nails, 
on His brow for the cruel thorns, and 

27 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

in His side for the thirsty spear. Room 
enough on the night air for His heart- 
broken cry, and room enough at the 
foot of the cross to gamble for His 
seamless coat. 

There has been no room in the world 
for God's best gifts to mankind. No 
room for Abel; for Socrates; for John 
the Baptist; and Peter, and Paul, and 
Huss, and Savonarola; for the Hugue- 
nots and the Puritans; for Bunyan, 
Luther, John Ball and Von Winkel- 
ried; for John Brown and Abraham 
Lincoln. 

But some had room for Jesus. There 
was room in the peasant's cave in Beth- 
lehem; in the humble mechanic's cot- 
tage in Nazareth ; in the hired house in 

28 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

Capernaum ; in the lonely mountains in 
Galilee; in Bethany's perfumed gar- 
dens ; among the outcasts and lepers ; in 
the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea; on 
Olivet's graceful shoulders; and on 
Heaven's Eternal Throne. 

The best things make room for them- 
selves at length in this old world. The 
fittest survives. The sun makes room 
for itself; and so do Music and Beauty 
and Truth. Today, the wise men of 
earth are bringing their choicest gifts. 
The most engaging theme in painting 
and sculpture is Christ. Poets are high 
priests of holiness, and sing most di- 
vinely when they sing of Christ. 

Where is Rome today? Where are 
the Caesars and the Herods? 

29 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 



(( 



Speak History ! Who are life's victors ? 

Unroll thy long annals, and say — 
Are they those whom the world called the 
victors 

Who won the success of a day? 
The martyrs, or Xero? The Spartans 

Who fell at Thermopylae's tryst, 
Or the Persians, or Xerxes ? 

His judges or Socrates? Pilate or 
Christ?" 



We must make room for the Christ- 
mas Lord, for "as many as received 
Him to them gave He povrer to become 
the Sons of God." When we make 
room for Jesus we make room for faith, 
vision, horizon and purpose. Cromwell 
used to say, ''Xo man rises so high as 
when he goes forth not knowing whither 
he goes." 

so 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

We make room for achievement when 
we make room for Christ. ''That which 
each man can do best, none but his Cre- 
ator can tell him." After a great bat- 
tle King Henry the Fourth chided one 
of his generals by saying, "Hang your- 
self, brave Crillon! We fought at Ai-- 
ques, and you were not there." 

We make room for truth. Truth 
means conflict, self-denial, persecution. 
" 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, when 
for the truth he ought to die." As has 
been said, God offers to each man truth 
or repose; you must choose between 
them; you cannot have both. 

"Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy 
kingly crown, 
When Thou earnest to earth for me ; 

31 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

But in Bethlehem's home was there found no 
room 

For Thy holy nativity. 

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus ! 

There is room in my heart for Thee. 

Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang, 
Proclaiming Thy royal degree ; 

But in lowly birth didst Thou come to earth, 
And in great humility. 

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus ! 
There is room In my heart for Thee. 

The foxes found rest, and the birds had their 
nest 
In the shade of the forest tree; 
But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of 
God, 
In the desert of Galilee. 
O come to my heart. Lord Jesus ! 

There is room in my heart for Thee. 

S2 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

Thou earnest, O Lord, with the living word, 
That should set Thy people free; 

But with mocking scorn and with crown of 
thorn 
They bore Thee to Calvary, 

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus ! 
Thy cross is my only plea. 

When the heavens shall ring and the angels 
sing. 
At Thy coming to victory, 
Let Thy voice call me home, saying, ^Yet 
there is room. 
There is room at my side for Thee.' 
And my heart shall rejoice. Lord Jesus, 
At Thy coming victory." 

(Godfrey Thring) 

Christmas is founded upon the fact 
of Christ. Christ is the best attested 
fact of history. His birth was the most 

33 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

momentous event of the centuries. His 
coming changed the channels and trends 
of history. It is not the same world it 
was before Bethlehem's star twinkled 
above a peasant's Judean home. 

The historian Lecky says : "The sim- 
ple record of three short years of ac- 
tive life has done more to regenerate and 
to soften mankind than all the disquisi- 
tions of philosophers and all the exhor- 
tations of moralists." 

Even Renan wrote: "Christ, for the 
first time, gave utterance to the idea 
upon which shall rest the everlasting re- 
ligion. If other planets have inhabi- 
tants endowed with reason and morality, 
their religion cannot be different from 
that which Jesus proclaimed at Jacob's 

34 



The FTl^ST CTTRIS TMAS STORY 

Well. The words of Jesus were a 
g^eani in tliiek night ; it has taken eight- 
een hundred years for the eyes of hu- 
manity (what do I say! of an infinitely 
small portion of humanity) to learn to 
abide by it." 



a 



My friend, you say there is no Christ; 

You say the sciences reveal 

Unto the world this fact! 

Why do 1 turn my back? 

That I may conceal 

The tears that fill my dim old eyes ! 

Long years ago, my precious son 
Dropped from the ranks of men. 
If there be no Christ, ah, then, 
I never more his blessed face shall see, 
Nor shall he call in tender tones to me 

35 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

Across the wide abyss of weary years, 
If there be no Christ, my friend, 
If there be no Christ ! 

And then, my patient wife, for forty years. 
Walked by my stumbling side, 
Until one day they say she died; 
And as she went away, of Christ she sang — 
Oh, those old songs so sweetly rang 
From her dear, old faithful lips ! 
She went to Christ in joy she said. 
But if there be no Christ, she's dead ; 
If there be no Christ, my friend. 
If there be no Christ. 

If there be no Christ, no Christ ! 
Then what is left for me 
So old and weak and scarce can see? 
No hope, no life, no resurrection day, 
No stores in heaven where never may 
The thief break through and steal ; 
Nor shall I hear the sounding peal 

S6 



Tlie FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

Of God's triumphant host ; 
Oh, the labor that Fve lost ; 
No crown to follow cross, 
If there be no Christ, my friend. 
If there be no Christ! 



I fondly hoped that on some happy shore 
I'd meet my loved ones ; where f orevermore 
We'd dwell together in the crystal light. 
Nor ever dread a coming night. 
Nor shudder when the wind blew cold 
Across the fields so bleak and bold; 
Ofttimes I'd glance where white and still 
I saw the graves my darlings fill — 
I chuckled with a faith made bold ; 
'They're not out in all that cold !' 
And oh, that thought was sweet, you know, 
But then, of course, it isn't so. 
If there be no Christ, my friend. 
If there be no Christ." 

(Douglas Dobbins) 
37 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

The most glorious personal truth of 
the Christmas story is that Christ today 
is willing to be cradled in the manger 
of our humble hearts. The wonder of 
the transformation of a soul into the 
likeness of Jesus Christ is the greatest 
of all miracles. "There was no room 
for them in the inn.'' Let us not crowd 
Jesus out of our hearts. Make room 
for Christ, and we make room for life, 
honor, truth and character. Selfishness 
is suicide. 

One wintry Christmas-day, the leg- 
end says, a brave soldier found a peas- 
ant nearly overcome with cold. The 
warrior took off his warm cloak, drew 
his sword and severed the garment in 
twain, and, dividing with the needy 

38 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

man, said: "Half for thee and half 
for me/' 



a 



Lo, as he slept at midnight's prime, 

His tent had the glory of summer time ; 

Shining out of wondrous light. 

The Lord Jesus beamed on his dazzled 

sight, 
^I was the beggar,' the Lord Jesus said, 
As He stood by the soldier's lowly bed ; 
^Half of thy garment thou gavest me ; 
With the blessing of Heaven I dower thee.' 
And Martin rose from the hallowed tryst 
Soldier and servant and knight of Christ." 



If we make room for Christ He will 
make room for us as the Sons and 
Daughters of God; room fol* us on 
thrones of power, in sweet fields of 
peace and plenty, and in mansions of 

39 



The FIRST CHRISTMAS STORY 

eternal beauty; room in His heart of 
love and under His sheltering Arm; 
and room at last at the Right Hand of 
God! 

O, let us open our hearts, today, to 
cradle the Manger King, the Prince of 
Peace I 



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